AirDrop Analysis of the UDP (Unsolicited Dick Pic) — mac4n6.com

December 3, 2018

Follow the logs down a bit and you’ll start to run into some potentially identifying information. We are now starting to see records containing Jen’s device name “Jen Mack’s iPhone”. Pay close attention to the first record highlighted and you’ll see what looks like a MAC address, however it is neither the Bluetooth nor the Wi-Fi addresses. This address is generated different every time a connection is made, therefore not an ideal data point for attribution.

Going back to the device’s name. This may lead you in the right direction, however anyone can name their device anything they want. I can call my iPhone X “Samsung S9” for instance, no identifying information and frankly a device that doesn’t even do AirDrop.

The next couple of highlighted sections (in red), show the start of the AirDrop connection. We can see an incoming request and start seeing records that include the AirDrop ID of Jen’s iPhone, 3DAA769F9F23. This is where I think attribution may be possible. This ID seems consistent across connections and different devices in my experience. It may be possible to tie this to an Apple ID or specific device. I have yet to find this connection however – it’s not part of the Serial, UDID, or various MAC addresses that I can tell. More research is needed here.

Next, in purple, is more metadata about the file transfer to include transfer status, media type, originating device name, source application, and associated transfer GUID.

In between these metadata records, it shows that it is transferring a file to /var/mobile/Downloads/com.apple.AirDrop/BA40D8CF-54E6-4B09-8F2F-717FB638174E/Files. Whether the user chooses Accept or Decline, the photo still gets transferred to the device.

Finally, the user receives an alert about the AirDrop’ed photo. Following this record is more details on how the user is alerted to the connection audibly and physically with alert tones and vibrations.